PHOTO GALLERY: Geis Cos. shows off its work at old Ameritrust complex

Geis Cos., the Streetsboro-based developer and contractor that is redeveloping the long-empty former Ameritrust Corp. complex as a mixed-use property, has 1 million square feet of property to fill at the development known as The 9.(SEE A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE DEVELOPMENT HERE.)Although sections of the 29-story skyscraper wing of the complex designed by famed architect Marcel Breuer include vast areas of grey concrete that brings to mind a Soviet-era Gulag or bomb bunker, Greg Geis, CEO of Geis Cos., describes it as a vast “palette.” The colors already are coming through as construction workers strip 42 years of grime from the skyscraper's precast window frames; many now are a bright white encased in dark granite that frames the tower.Mr. Geis said Geis employees and designers put the plans for the complex together by considering what they could offer that does not exist downtown — and which businesses Geis could enter.Many real estate developers facing the proposition of a $250 million project would have split it up among different users, such as a hotel developer and apartment owner-operator. That would have spread the risk and financing requirement among multiple players. However, Geis chose to go it alone when it bought the complex last May from Cuyahoga County, although it has hired an outside hotel manager for the independent Metropolitan Hotel. The hotel will be part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, which affords hotels connections with Marriott's reservation and rewards system.The 150-room Metropolitan Hotel in the Ameritust tower is Geis' first hotel project, and the apartments it's undertaking in the tower are its second apartment venture. The tower will contain 100 rental apartments, including three floors of custom-designed rentals called “Sky suites” designed according to perquisites of tenants who lease them in advance. Suites up to 3,000 square feet in size — larger than many suburban houses — will be offered. Rentals in the adjoining Swetland Building, 1010 Euclid Ave., are designated as lower-cost, market-rate rentals.On an Oct. 8 tour of the complex, Mr. Geis said the residences in the tower will have the highest vantage point of any rentals in the city. A mezzanine above the lobby on East Ninth will become a bar. A 12th-floor parapet will become a rooftop bar and sun deck, and the vaults in the building's basement will become private banquet rooms. The former corporate auditorium will become a movie and events center open to the public.Lobbies leading to elevators serving the tower's hotel and apartment suites will be home to an art gallery. The rotunda will become the produce and fresh foods area of a Heinen's grocery store.While it seems like a lot of space, Mr. Geis said his staff and consultants had difficulty getting everything into the building that they wanted to include. On a walk through the gutted 28th floor — the tallest floor in the 29-story building available to the public — Geis Cos. partner Fred Geis said each wall features a different view of the city, from Public Square and the West Side on one to Progressive Field on the south, the lake on the north, and University Circle and Cleveland Heights on the East Side.

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